The Internet is a well-known collection of networks (e.g., public and private data communication and multimedia networks) that work together (cooperate) using common protocols to form a worldwide network of networks.
The usage of the Internet has continuously grown since its early days. It has become an integral part of enterprises offering information and services to potential customers. Typically, such enterprises may set up a homepage on the worldwide web (a “web site”). The worldwide web may be understood as a logical overlay of the Internet. Each web site constitutes an electronically-addressable location. On the user side, client devices may be typically equipped with web-browsers to access the information offered on those web sites. The client devices may be anything being able to connect to the Internet, e.g., personal computers, netbook computers, notebook computers, smartphones, tablet computers, game consoles and many other devices including household devices and in-car computers as well as server computers.
An increasing number of web sites offer personalized services that may include “personalized web pages” customized to a user's interest. In order to track users' behavior or preferences that may go forth and back to/from a specific web site, session IDs, cookies and/or client computer identifiers, and/or browser identifiers may be stored by the server driving a specific web site.
Due to its predominance, the Internet or worldwide web has become a part of everyday life and there is nearly nothing a user cannot find when searching the web. However, this behavior may compromise user privacy. In particular, web sites, Internet service providers and many other parties may continuously collect data that even if the user is not fully identified, may violate a user's privacy. In particular, during the navigation of a web sites often times, data is being collected to create anonymous profiles of users. The data collected may be used for marketing purposes or to predict users' behaviors.
Several technologies have been developed in order to protect users' privacy when surfing the Internet. However, known systems for increasing privacy, when surfing the worldwide web or communicating with a web server, rely on central systems which typically function as proxy servers.